The field of the disclosure is resource use management and more specifically tools to help persons comprehend space types and affordance capabilities associated with different spaces and to develop characteristics of sessions to occur in the spaces so that the spaces and affordances can be used in ways that optimally support different types of activities within the spaces.
Throughout time people have attempted to equip their environments with the best tools and resources available for performing various tasks. For instance, in business and other environments where people need to interact on a regular basis, people are always searching for tools and resources to increase efficiency and achieve better or more optimized results. Many businesses and other entities (e.g., government, educational, charity, etc.) have recognized that communication and knowledge sharing among people is critical to their success. To help people communicate, share information and collaborate, most business and other entity facilities provide conference or meeting spaces that are designed and equipped to facilitate these and other activities.
Many early conference rooms included a set of stationary walls that divided the space from a larger ambient environment, a set of comfortable chairs arranged about a conference table within the space and some way for a conference session leader (e.g., a conferee making a presentation) to present analog content. Here, the phrase “analog content” is used to refer to information applied to a surface that is not in a persistent digital form. For instance, many conference spaces designed to support leader based activities included a blackboard or whiteboard for presenting or developing content during a session. As another instance, some conference spaces included flip charts (e.g., large (3 by 5 foot) pads of bound paper) on which content could be applied during a session. As yet one other instance, some conference spaces were equipped with overhead projector devices that directed light up through annotated clear foils to generate projected images on a pull down or up display screen surface. Here, pre-generated content could be applied to foils or content could be generated within a space during a session by apply ink via a pen to the foils.
In some cases whiteboards and flip charts have been equipped with cameras to obtain images of content applied thereto so that a persistent digital form of the content can be generated and archived for subsequent access. Here, after one or more conferees generate content on the whiteboard, the camera is used to take and store a digital image for access by conferees using personal computers or the like.
Over time, computers (e.g., laptops) and projectors have evolved and now enable users to prepare digital content that can be presented via the projectors on large projection screens. More recently, large flat panel and curved panel display screens have been developed and have reached a price point that enables companies to provide large panel displays within conference spaces that can be used by conferees to present digital content. In addition, electronic whiteboards have been developed that enable a conferee to simulate pen writing on an emissive surface via a stylus or the conferee's finger where a whiteboard processor trails the tip of the stylus or the conferee's finger with a trail of virtual ink. Many current electronic whiteboards can double as a shared computer display screen for sharing software program (e.g., Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point, etc.) output and the touch sensitive displays can receive conferee input to control software programs (e.g., select on screen virtual icons, add content via a virtual keyboard, etc.).
While in person meetings are often preferred for various reasons, in many cases one or more employees or other persons that should participate in a conference session may not be able to attend in person. To allow at least some participation by remote conferees, audio and video systems have been developed. For instance, early systems simply linked remote conferees via a telephone to a conference space so that remote conferees could hear and participate in session discussions. More recently telepresence systems have been developed that provide high definition video and audio capabilities so that remote conferees are able to participate in conference activities more fully. In some cases two or more electronic panel displays or projectors are provided within one space, a first for a telepresence view of one or more remote conferees and a second for shared digital content. In other cases, software has been developed to divide a display surface of a single panel display screen into windows where one or more windows is used for viewing remote conferees and another is used for sharing digital content.
Hereinafter, unless indicated otherwise, the term “vessel” will be used to refer to any environmental affordance used to present information within a space including paper tools (e.g., a flip chart), blackboards, whiteboards, both electronic and non-electronic, overhead projectors and foils, projectors and mechanical projection screens, flat and/or curved electronic display screens, common screens, personal (e.g., laptop, tablet type device, etc.) device screens and any other manifestation for presenting content. In addition, where a single display screen or emissive surface is divided into sub-windows or spaces, each sub-window will be referred to herein as a separate vessel (e.g., a surface presenting four separate images in four separate windows on a single emissive surface would have four separate vessels).
Throughout the evolution of conference space affordances, unwritten standards or rules of thumb have developed that have simplified the tasks associated with content generation and presentation. A first particularly advantageous rule of thumb relates to spatial characteristics of shared content. Except for in specially designed and customized cases, the shapes of content presenting vessels have been restricted to rectangular. As examples, the general shape of flip pad paper is rectangular, conventional overhead projector screens and associated foiled has been rectangular, the shape of projection screens has been rectangular, the shape of flat panel displays is generally rectangular and even the general shape of most curved electronic displays is rectangular. This rule of thumb developed primarily because of manufacturing constraints associated with non-rectangular vessels (e.g., non-rectangular electronic display screens) and a desire to use space efficiently (e.g., a circular flip chart pad or whiteboard often times wastes wall space at corners).
A second unwritten rule of thumb is that, in most cases, only one or a small number (e.g., two) of electronic display screens and/or electronic whiteboards are located in each conference space. Historically this rule of thumb developed primarily because early projectors and electronic display screens and electronic whiteboards were simply too expensive to provide more than one in a space.
A third unwritten rule of thumb is that, even where there are two or more common large electronic display screens in a space, one is typically located at a central point of focus within the space such as, for instance, along a front wall of the conference space. Here, secondary screens may be presented at other locations within the conference space but most activity occurs at the centrally located screen.
A fourth unwritten rule of thumb is that, in many cases, content and its presentation has a linear or sequential order. For instance, during an informative presentation where one conferee acts as a presenter to present information to others within a space, the presenter typically scripts the entire presentation so that first content is followed by second, second by third, and so on until the presentation is complete.
A fifth unwritten rule of thumb is that standard laptop, tablet and other device interfaces have been developed that enable device users to link to electronic space vessels for sharing content. For instance, standard device output ports and connection cables for connecting to projectors, displays, etc., have been developed so that substantially all portable computing devices can be linked for sharing content. One advantage associated with standard connection cables is that a conferee can use her own portable device as an interface for driving common display screens within a conference space. Thus, for instance, a user may use on screen icons presented by Power Point or other software applications on a laptop or tablet device screen to control content on common space vessels.
These rules of thumb or standards have enabled software developers to assume specific characteristics and capabilities of conference spaces and develop software specifically geared toward content generation for standard conference spaces that include at least a centrally located, main, rectangular, digital content vessel (e.g., a large main electronic display screen), standard connection cables, and to assume that content will generally be presented in a sequentially ordered fashion.
One other advantage associated with the rectangular shape of common vessels is that the shape of the vessel effectively mirrors the shape of most display screens included with personal computing devices like desktop computers, laptop computers, tablet computing devices (e.g., an i-Pad), etc.). The common shape means that when content is developed for using a personal device display screen, the content is automatically properly formatted and generally dimensioned for common electronic display or projection vessels. For instance, Microsoft developed the Power Point software program which enables a user to generate slides (e.g., content) that can be presented during a session. Here, each slide has a rectilinear shape that is similar to the standard shape of the main vessel in most conference spaces. In addition, the Power Point program naturally supports a sequential progression through slides that are meant to be presented on a single main vessel within a space.
One other advantage associated with the common vessel and personal device display shapes is that a conferee can effectively experience session content prior to the occurrence of a session during a pre-session process anywhere by using the conferee's own personal device. For instance, a presenter may develop a Power Point presentation via her laptop computer and has the ability to run the presentation prior to a session to identify weaknesses in the presentation materials or sequential flow and to become familiar with the presentation materials during a practice or test session.
Still one other advantage associated with systems that are consistent with the unwritten rules of thumb above is that the tools used to control content during a pre-session practice activity may be essentially identical to the tools used during a subsequent session in the conference space. For instance, in the case of a Power Point presentation developed using a laptop computer, the presentation may be controlled during a pre-session dry run using laptop input devices (e.g., keyboard arrow buttons) or on screen icons in the same fashion that the presentation will be controlled subsequently after connection via a standard connection cable to a projector, an electronic display, etc.
Knowing that many sessions are presentation based where one conferee presents sequential content to other conferees at any given time, the developers of Power Point and other similar software packages have designed templates that are specifically designed to help a presenter generate a sequential set of slides for sharing. An exemplary template may include a series of blank sequential rectilinear slides that include fields for entering different types of content such as a main session title, sub-titles, lists, paragraphs, quotations, charts (e.g., Gantt, pie, bar, etc.), and so on. Here, the conferee works through a template developing content which is then stored in an instantiated instance of the template for subsequent access during a session. Hereinafter, unless indicated otherwise, an instantiated instance of a template will be referred to as a “session specification”.
In addition to using conference spaces for leader or presenter based presentations, some spaces have been developed and equipped to support collaborative or generative group activities where multiple conferees may share and generate and even co-generate content. For instance, a MediaScape system designed, manufactured and sold by Steelcase Inc. of Grand Rapids Mich., includes two or more (e.g., four) large common display screens adjacent a conference table top or other conferee supporting structure and computing hardware that enables conferees to share content from their portable computing device desktops with each other in an egalitarian fashion. Here, the term “egalitarian” means that any conferee linked to the system can duplicate their desktop content on any of the common display screens at any time during a session regardless of who is currently presenting content on a target screen. Thus, for instance, where a system includes first, second and third screens and first, second and third conferees are currently sharing their desktops on the first, second and third screens, respectively, a fourth linked conferee could opt to share her desktop on any one or subset of the first, second or third screens without requiring permission or screen yielding by any of the other conferees. Other multi-screen or window content sharing systems have been developed within the industry generally.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,948,448 which issued on May 24, 2011 and which is titled “Portable Presentation System And Method For Use Therewith” which is owned by the present applicant, teaches another system that includes a plurality of electronic display screens mounted to carts for movement within and among conference spaces where content on a primary screen can be flipped to any of the other secondary screens for display and can be brought back to the primary screen for viewing or additional editing. Here, any of the cart mounted screens can be manually moved to any of several relative juxtapositions relative to the other cart mounted screens and relative to the conference space in general. Some ways of controlling the flipping and retrieval of content among the screens are contemplated.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/500,155 which was filed on Sep. 29, 2014 and which is titled “Emissive Surfaces And Workspaces Method And Apparatus”, which is owned by the present applicant, teaches several differently afforded conference spaces and different types of interfaces for use in those spaces. In some cases, a space includes several flat panel display screens mounted on or supported within different wall structures about the space. In other cases, a space includes completely emissive wall surfaces. This application also teaches various interfaces for controlling content on the emissive surfaces or screens including use of personal devices that facilitate directional sharing of content from a user's device display screen and other interfaces that are integrated into a table top or the like.
US patent application Ser. No. 14/159,589 which was filed on Jan. 21, 2014 and which is titled “Emissive Shapes And Control Systems” teaches other shaped vessels that include external emissive surfaces of different shapes. For instance, one affordance includes an emissive surface arrangement that has several different planar surfaces arranged to present different types of information. For example, surfaces that are arranged to be viewed by one person within a space may present relatively more private content than surfaces that are arranged to be viewed by other persons within the space (e.g., a second person spaced on an opposite side of a table top or work surface). This application also teaches virtual interfaces presented on emissive surfaces at different locations for controlling content on other emissive surfaces. Each of the above patent and applications is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
Clearly the types of display/emissive surface vessels, the number of vessels within a conference space and the arrangements of those vessels within space are proliferating rapidly as new technologies emerge and others mature which brings the costs associated therewith down. The vessel types, numbers and arrangements as well as user interface functionality are expected to increase at an even more rapid rate moving forward.
While different vessel arrangements and interface functionality hold promise, the ability to design and provide many different customized vessel arrangements and interfaces substantially complicates the task of optimally using those vessels. For instance, assume that any conference space may be customized and have any of 20 different electronic emissive vessel arrangements for sharing content and 20 different ways of interfacing with each vessel arrangement. For example, assume that a first conference space includes three large flat screen displays on a front wall and fourth and fifth displays mounted on left and right side walls while a second space includes the five display arrangement in the first space plus three additional flat displays on a rear wall and an emissive table top structure having a top surface on which vessels can be presented for providing digital content. In addition, assume that the first space is only set up for leader based presentations via mechanical connection to a video cable while the second space is configured to support egalitarian control of display content on any of the emissive wall surfaces via separate virtual interfaces provided on the emissive table top surface for each of the conferees within the space. Assume that a third conference space only includes a single projector and mechanical projection screen and that control must be via buttons on a laptop keypad. Many other conference spaces may have many other vessel and interface configurations.
In this example where each conference space is potentially differently afforded, an initial problem may be that a potential space user has no way to determine the vessel arrangement within a space short of traveling to the space and viewing the arrangement. In many cases a pre-session space visit cannot be made and in most other cases such a visit would be burdensome.
Another problem associated with spaces that may have any of several different emissive vessel arrangements is that, even if a potential space user is familiar with the vessel arrangement within a specific space, no known system exists to help the user develop content for the space. For instance, in the first space having the first vessel arrangement (e.g., five large screens on a front, left and right walls) described above, how can a user prepare a sequence of content to be presented via the five displays? What happens to content on secondary displays when content on a central main display is changed and can content on secondary displays be manually modified by a user irrespective of what happens on a main display? The potential space user would have many other questions and no answers.
Complicating matters further, what happens if a space user that is familiar with the vessel arrangement and interface capabilities in one space has to use a different space that includes a different vessel arrangement and interface capabilities? Similarly, what if a conferee prepares a presentation for a first space with a first vessel and interface set and thereafter has to reschedule and is forced to use a second space with a different arrangement set where the presentation for the first space does not “fit” into the second space because of the different arrangement set?
Another problem arises if a person has an immediate need to present content to others and has to use a space having affordances for which content to be presented was not pre-specified. For instance, assume that a group of five colleagues cooperate over several months on a specific project AA and have been developing project work product that takes several different digital forms. Also assume that three of the five colleagues are unexpectedly located at a first facility at the same time and want to have a quick impromptu 30 minute session to discuss new developments in the project and that the fourth and fifth colleagues intend to patch into the session to remotely participate. Here, the three collocated colleagues in the first facility go to an available emissive room (e.g., a conference space having full wall emissive surfaces) to share project work product. Upon entering the emissive room, despite all of the capabilities of the emissive surfaces in the space, the conferees would have no easy or intuitive way to populate the surfaces with project work product, to patch in the remote conferees, etc. because of the constrained 30 minute period, the collocated colleagues would likely just use the space in a relatively “dumbed-down” way to present a snap shot of the work product in one vessel on one wall with the remote colleagues patching in via a teleconference. Thus, while the emissive room could clearly provide an optimized experience if controlled to do so, space affordances are underutilized and the overall experience is not any better than what could have been provided using a conventional less afforded and less expensive space.
Thus, a need exists for a system that can be used to help potential space users identify vessel and interface arrangements as well as functionalities supported by sharing systems in different spaces and prepare content for use in different spaces that have different vessel and interface arrangements. In addition, it would be advantageous if such a system could enable a user to pre-view a session presentation in some meaningful way and could become comfortable with space affordances prior to arrival at the space. Furthermore, it would be advantageous if the aforementioned system could further fit any presentation to any space vessel arrangement.